I'll take the High Road...

First, we should apologize for not writing in so long. We only have one excuse…it’s summer. When the sun shines every day and it doesn’t get dark until 21:30, we find that time speeds by a little more quickly. Of course if you don't buy that excuse, our other two excuses are named Amelia and Tristan, they keep us pretty busy! But we did want to tell you about our trip at the end of May.

This was Tristan’s second plane trip, after going to the US for Xmas. He was a champ and travels as easily as Amelia, who has probably spent more time on airplanes than she has on changing tables (okay, that might not be true). But traveling with the kids was actually easy and even exciting. Amelia had been counting down on a calendar for the last month, and was super excited. Tristan seemed pretty excited, too, but he usually is. After traveling all across the US, a 3-hour direct flight from Lisbon to Edinburgh is really like a walk in the park.

For those of you who haven’t been to Scotland, it’s a gorgeous country. The rolling hills, rugged coast, thickening fog and flowing scotch combine to make a relaxing vacation. Especially appealing were the un-refurbished castles that quickly take you back to the 13^th century. It’s remarkable how those Scots spent most of their time fighting one another, clan against clan, but I think the challenging landscape and challenging climate helped shape the rough-and-tumble culture.

We joined Karen and Kevin from Santa Barbara on this trip, and Liam and Julie came over from Portland. We had a remarkably comfortable home on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond for a week, not much swimming (though Liam and Dan confirmed the water was VERY cold), but some hiking, exploring, and we were known to pop into the nearby pub for a pint or an espresso when it was raining (daily) or when the power went out (we experienced a pretty rough storm). And to top it all off, our babysitter was two doors down the hallway and she didn’t even mind Amelia yelling “Hey Grandma!” all day long which was then followed by whatever command she felt like doing at that moment.

We hope you all are enjoying summer as much as we are. It’s much easier to entertain young children when you can be outside and let them run around and use up their energy. We’ll try to update again soon, including telling you about our recent sojourn to Salamanca, Spain and our upcoming summer holiday in Turkey which will be in August. For more pictures of our Scotland trip, click here. Até já…